Reply to Option B Alternate - Adding extra ES to WJ?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Three years ago, Viers Mill had universal free lunch for one year. That is why they have greater than 95% for "now or in the past" FARMs. Literally every kid (including the PEP classes for 3yos, meaning some current K) who was there in the 2023-24 school year is counted in the percentage.

I've been a VM parent for 10 years. Nobody I've heard from here wants to go to WJ. For many reasons. VM families have been happy mostly with Wheaton/DCC, and most people seem reasonably okay with Woodward.

The VM community is super tight and protective. Maybe it feels like WJ is racist/classist/whatever, but mostly I think it's that those feeder schools operate in completely different worlds.[/quote]

A question for you and other VM posters. I don't know anything about VM. When I want to learn about a school I go to SchoolDigger to see their ranking and performance on tests. 20 years ago VM was one of the top ES in the state. For the last 5-10 years, the school has been dropping on tests like a rock, hitting an all-time low last year and is currently ranked 595th in the state. What changed in recent years?[/quote]

I've been teaching at VM for almost 20 years now.
Several factors, in my opinion:
-Title 1 funding was consistent. Falling just short of that funding means a giant shift in resources with very little change in need. It can mean 10 fewer "poor" kids = $500k lost in staffing.
-MSA was the dominant decider of ratings by Great schools. School digger, etc (this is prob the biggest piece)
-Testing accommodations for students with IEPs and EML status (back when it was ESOL) were not nearly as restricted. ESOL students were allowed scribe accommodation, for example. Now very, very few qualify for that 
-testing was also pencil and paper. The shift to computer based testing has stretched the inequities, in my opinion. Typing Vs writing... The kids give up much faster.
-the housing crisis greatly shifted the demographics and led to a huge change in the community, especially in Holiday Park. Homes that had 4 or 5 VM kids dropped to 0 as the families combining on a mortgage were foreclosed on and the homes were eventually resold. We still have multi-family homes, but most are renters and mobility is higher.
-a period of several years with inconsistent administration and thus some teacher turnover. It takes longer to recover from that than one might think 
-all the things that have affected MCPS as a whole. Shifts in special education support, changes in curriculum that don't allow for autonomy, etc. none of the above things are unique to VM but they factor in.

I don't see us as declining right now. I think since COVID we've been on the upswing, and staff and admin have been very consistent. Current principal is in his 10th (?) year and has a pretty good feeling for the pulse of the community. The PTA is strong and reflects the community. We've gotten support for the pockets that need it. It's feeling more like the old VM, but in a new way. Several staff members send their own kids here.[/quote]

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